The Rebel Faction

Hah.

I'm happy for you Om. Cats a great space-sharing animals. I hesitate to call them companions as it tends to elicit the same sort of notions attached to dogs. But as anyone who has ever had cats and dogs will tell you; the relationship between person and pet, from cat to dog, is totally different.

I'm also amused by the patronizing tone about the generic nature of your kittens, and your disinterest in tracing their lineage as if somehow anyone who does (myself included) is somehow, you know... "one of those people."

It's hard losing a pet. Peanut and Ginger sound like friendly felines and I wish you, them, and your significant other all the best. Widget is in a better place. I know this because all cats go to cat heaven, which is better then human heaven and cat heaven also doubles as Allergic-Persons Hell (they lease out sessions to Satan).

Dillon looks like a soft, cuddly cat. It could just be the red-eye reflection in the first picture, but he looks like he also has the hunters instinct hidden beneath that tabby exterior. It's great to know that there are people who care enough to take on a hard-luck case and stick with it. Health issues can be a difficult, Zeus had his own early in life, but the healing process forms an even stronger bond between person and pet, I think. He looks like a strong fellow and I bet he'll be healthy as a... cat... in no time.

I can't tell from the picture; is Dillon a six-toe?

As a rescue cat, do you know much about his background? Is he an indoor or indoor/outdoor? Dish! Dish!

Om, sounds like you have two calicos. Calico females are fertile (if not neutered) but if you'd found a rare male, he'd most likely be sterile. It's a weird DNA thing regardless of breed. Most cats are just American shorthairs, like Dillon, but he has that odd toe mutation. Archie calls him our little mutant. There was a solid white kitty there who had two colors of eyes but she was pretty stuck up and didn't show interest in any one, so Archie opted for the love bug who wanted petting. With as friendly as he is, I don't know why Dillon was at the shelter so long, unless people found the extra toe off putting.

Beff, he does have six toes but he's been really stubborn about letting us get a pic of his paws. It's weird, it merely looks like a dew claw a dog would have but he can wiggle them like thumbs. It's hilarious when he plays to see him do that. You can't really see much of a difference in his paw and other's until you turn them over and see his pads. He has the normal pink pads but with three extra up near the dew claw like toe. When he walks, it's like he's grabbing the floor with each step.

Dillon is a year or two old, so in cat years he's a kindergartner. (With dogs it's seven years to our one year but cats are five years to our one year.) He was adopted in March of last year, taken home for about 3 months, they declawed him in that time, then brought him back because of a move in June. He was at the shelter till we got him last Friday, by Sunday he was really sick. Diagnosis is coccidia and we're having a bit of a problem getting it cleared up. I'm bleaching and cleaning as much as I can to keep him from re infecting himself, but he's a really thin cat to begin with, so I think he might have just been sick with something else before this. I've never had a cat that is as calm as this guy is though. The only time he acts up is when he's stalking our parakeet and when he bit the needle at the vets office today. He was back for his third visit because of some yellow foam vomit, but apparently that's par for the course with coccidia. It's been stressful, we initially got a shelter cat to save money on the inoculations and shots and things, but the little mutant is lucky he's so damned loving and cute because we're already attached.

And since I started the thread and it's my cat I'm talking about, I don't mind the highjacking :-p

We actually have three cats, a brother/sister Siamese-mix pair and a stray we picked up (no idea as to breed). Outdoors only, as are all our animals, but considering the amount of land we have it's not a problem.

Two dogs, as well - a black lab and a Husky - with whom the cats get along very well. Actually, one of the Siamese (the female) sleeps huddled up next to the black lab nearly every night.

Most of my life I grew up with indoor/outdoor pets. Both cats and dogs. But in Victoria, where I lived in the past, I was always in areas where it was safe for them to roam the wilds of the neighborhood. However, now that we're living in Vancouver pretty much downtown there's no way it would work. Plus, our condo is on the 15th floor of our building and I think that the workings of the elevator would elude our feline friends. Parachutes and rocket boots, in cat size. ZOOOOOOM!

And I feel your pain, Om. Our cats get rowdy and ready to rock at ungodly hours as well which just goes to prove that God turns a blind eye to cats; they have a deal, just like the army - "don't ask, don't tell."

in the first pic you can clearly see the sixth toe, but it's coolest when he works it like a thumb. BUT if you look really close at the second pic, the foot on the right, you can see the sixth toe and another little digit they don't consider a toe because it has no bone. It's in the crease of the extra toe and his foot, very tiny but it's there.